Greater Noida: Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel warmed up for afternoon's qualifying in style, setting the fastest lap time in the third and final practice session of the F1 Indian Grand Pix while Force India drivers continued with their strong showing, ending in top-10 yet again.

Vettel pipped Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Jenson Button in the dying minutes of the one-hour session by clocking 1:24.824 in his 18th and final lap.

India's Narain Karthikeyan, who drives for Hispania, improved on his yesterday's last-place finish as he ended at 22nd spot, two places better than his teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Karthikeyan clocked 1:30.900, which was better than his 1:32.824 effort in the second practice session on Friday.

There was a keen three-way battle between Vettel, Alonso and Button but the Red Bull driver had saved his best for the last lap and the last minute of the session. Button was second, just 0.367 sec behind, followed by Vettel's teammate mark Webber (1:25.203).

Webber, just like his Red Bull teammate, stepped up in his last effort and pushed McLraen's Lewis Hamilton (1:25.288) and Alonso (1:25.784) to fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Mercedes GP's Michael Schumacher (1:27.217) was 11th, just behind Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi (1:27.146).